Hague's meeting with Maliki may have looked friendly enough, but it came at a peculiarly awkward time. The Iraqi prime minister is resisting calls to set up a salvation government and, more alarming still for the West, he appears to be shifting allegiance towards Syria.

A handout picture released by the Iraqi Prime Minister's media office shows British Foreign Secretary William Hague during his meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the latter's office in Baghdad. Photograph: -/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 2.47pm BST

2.33pm BST

Maliki has underlined his allegiance to Syria by adopting the Assad tactic of signalling a reliance on Russian support.

In his BBC interview he is also reported to have announced that he is in talks with Moscow over the delivery of jet fighters.

natalia antelava (@antelava)

maliki tells bbc he is in talks with russia over jet fighters delivery because america dragging its feet

The UN's children's charity, Unicef, has expressed alarm about the "mass displacement" of people in northern Iraq after it said 1,500 people have fled fighting in Hamdaniya.

Those fleeing to Irbil include hundreds of children it said.

Unicef's Iraq Representative Marzio Babille said:

Many of these displaced people have travelled long distances on foot and some bear injuries sustained in the recent violence.

Unicef assessment teams were at the various locations where families were sheltering Wednesday evening and have today begun providing immediate life-saving aid – including water and sanitation kits - to the children, women and their families.

Unicef reiterates its call on all parties to the conflict to ensure the protection of children and all civilians.

An Iraqi Christian woman fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30 kms east of the northern province of Nineveh, plays with a child upon her arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Irbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 2.21pm BST

1.22pm BST

The BBC has broadcast footage of Maliki welcoming Syrian cross border air strikes against insurgents in the al-Qaim area.

It quotes him saying:

There was no coordination involved, but we welcome this action. We welcome any Syrian strike against Isis, because this group targets both Iraq and Syria ... But we didn't make any request from Syria. They carry out their strikes and we carry out ours. The final winners are our two countries.

1.14pm BST

An insurgent artillery offensive against Christian villages in the north of Iraq has sent thousands of people fleeing from their homes, seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish enclave, according to AP.

The shelling of the cluster of villages happened in an area known as Hamdaniya, 45 miles (75 kilometers) from the frontier of the self-ruled Kurdish region.

While many villagers appeared to have been granted access by daybreak, hundreds of Shia refugees were still hoping to be let in but were facing delays because they lacked sponsors on the other side.

One of the refugees, who gave only her nickname of Umm Alaa, fearing retribution, said she and hundreds of others with her had left their village of Quba and another nearby hamlet during the militants' initial assault on June 10 to seek shelter in nearby communities that were then attacked Wednesday.

Another, who agreed to be identified only named Huda, tried to calm her 10-year-old son Mohammed, who was crying of thirst.

"They will kill every Shia man, and they will burn every Shia house. Nobody has stayed in Quba. Every single Shia has left," he said, echoing the fears of many interviewed.

Iraqi Christian families fleeing the violence in the village of Qaraqush, about 30km east of the northern province of Nineveh, are pictured upon their arrival at a community center in the Kurdish city of Irbil. Photograph: Safin Hamed/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 1.48pm BST

1.07pm BST

Iraqi state TV has broadcast footage claiming to show that government forces in control of the Baiji Oil refinery.

According to a translation by Mona Mahmood (@monamood) , it quotes a military official as saying: "It is under our control, all the refinery is under our control, Isis could not get anything. The battle has continued for seven days. More than 90 Isis militants have been killed. The local Baiji tribes are working with us."

The broadcaster showed footage of a helicopter landing inside Baiji refinery. It dismissed claims that the insurgents controlled the plant as "lies".

It said morale among the troops guarding the plant was "high" and that they had enough food and weapons to defend it.

Updated at 1.46pm BST

12.15pm BST

Three Iraqi helicopters have landed at Isis-controlled Tikrit University and clashed with with militants, according to a brief update by Reuters.

It cited security sources but did not elaborate.

11.44am BST

Up the Euphrates river in Syria, Isis control of dams combined with historically low water levels threatens a humanitarian crisis, according to a new Chatham House paper by analyst Nouar Sahmout.

She writes:

Isis now has control of the Euphrates’ major water structures within Syria. This includes Al-Raqqa Dam, one of the biggest dams in the Middle East, which controls the river flow for most of the irrigated lands downstream of Al-Raqqa and supplies 19 per cent of the country’s electrical power.

The Euphrates River, which provides 65 per cent of the country's water needs, is also experiencing a dangerous decrease in its flow rates. This is likely to be due to a combination of factors: decades of poor water management, current neglect of water infrastructure on the Euphrates, and the absence of any coordination between Syria and upstream Turkey regarding the river flow. As a result, in late May, the river dried up downstream of Al-Raqqa city, depriving many downstream towns of water. The water level of Al-Assad Lake – Syria’s largest reservoir, which provides irrigation for some 500 square miles of agricultural land and all of Aleppo’s drinking water − has dropped by six meters since ISIS took control in January. If the lake loses one more metre the water system will stop working. This will leave more than four million inhabitants without access to safe water. This could result in a humanitarian catastrophe that would overwhelm agencies on the ground.

The warning raises the possibility of catastrophic damage and flooding, it said.

Alarmed army officers told employees to stay inside and to be prepared to open the dam’s floodgates if ordered to do so, one employee said.

“This will lead to the flooding of the town and villages and will harm you also,” the employee said he told the officers.

11.20am BST

Britain has repeatedly ruled out military intervention in Iraq, and there's no sign that Hague's visit to Baghdad will change that.

On a visit to Qatar on Wednesday, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, said a “political solution” to Iraq’s divisions among Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions was a “necessary precursor” to any military help for the Maliki government.

McClatchy quoted Hammond saying: “Any military intervention which was not preceded by a political initiative to create an inclusive government, a government which is credible with the Sunni community in Iraq, would be bound to fail."

11.10am BST

Syria's air force is filling a vacuum left by US reluctance to to launch air strikes on behalf of the Maliki government, according to the BBC's correspondent in Baghdad, Richard Galpin.

10.48am BST

Hague says he has travelled to Baghdad to lobby for an inclusive government as a solution to the "existential threat" posed by Isis gains.

In a statement explaining his trip, Hague said:

The Iraqi state is facing an existential threat, with huge ramifications for the future stability and freedom of this country. The single most important factor that will determine whether or not Iraq overcomes this challenge is political unity.

As a friend of Iraq, the UK believes the urgent priority must be to form an inclusive government that can command the support of all Iraqi people and work to stop ISIL in its tracks. The discussion of this key point is the purpose of my visit to Iraq and will form the basis of my conversations with Prime Minister Maliki and President of the Kurdish Regional Government Masoud Barzani as well as other key political figures.

The UK can provide diplomatic, counter-terrorism and humanitarian support to Iraq. We were the first donor nation to get a team on the ground to assess humanitarian needs in Irbil. We have provided £5 million in emergency relief already, and there is more that we will be able to do in support of a unified Iraqi government.

ISIL is a brutal terrorist group that is alien to this country, to the Middle East, and to the Islamic faith. It is a mortal threat to the stability and territorial integrity of Iraq, but the danger does not stop here: ISIL poses a direct threat to other countries in this region.

Moreover, anyone glorifying, supporting or joining ISIL should understand that they are assisting a group responsible for kidnapping, torture, executions, rape, and numerous other crimes documented by international human rights organisations. This is not heroic behaviour, it is heinous behaviour, and no one should be under any illusions about that.

But the immediate priority, and the focus of my discussions today, is to help and encourage Iraqi leaders to put sectarian conflict behind them and unite across all political parties.”

Yesterday Hague was in Brussels for a meeting of Nato foreign ministers.

Nato Secretary and General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and US Secretary of State John Kerry talk as British Foreign Secretary William Hague walks in front of them after the family photo session. Photograph: Ye Pingfan/REX

Sunni militants have taken control of a town an hour from Baghdad, according to Reuters citing security sources.

It said the latest gains for the insurgents is at Mansouriyat al-Jabal, which is home to four natural gas fields.

10.13am BST

Disturbing video from activists opposed to the Maliki government claims to show victims of the Syrian air raids on al-Qaim. The clip [warning graphic content] shows a dead man on the blood-splattered floor of a grocery store, and bodies being loaded on to a truck. It cannot be independently verified.

10.03am BST

A new round of negotiations between Sunni insurgents, the Iraqi military, and tribal leaders is under way over control Iraq's main oil refinery at Baiji, according to a worker at the plant.

Ahmed Abdul Hameed, a 36-year-old employee at the refinery told the Guardian's Mona Mahmood (@monamood) that staff are increasingly angry at the Maliki government over air strikes against the Baiji area.

A prominent tribal leader in Baiji city, sheikh Ghalib al-Nufous launched a new round of negotiations between the rebels and the military forces gathering inside the refinery yesterday.

Leaked information from the talks suggested the military forces guarding the plant, were offered safe passage out, in return for handing over control of the refinery to tribal leaders.

We hope that that a deal can be reached to end the crisis at the plant, so that staff can finally be paid. There are more than 11,000 staff who have not been paid for a month now .

The government in Baghdad views all the families living in Baiji as terrorists or in support of terror. It keeps firing air strikes at civilians not the rebels.

Maliki's order to cut off our salaries is compounding our misery.

Maliki can't understand that there are innocent people who have nothing to do of what is happening in Baiji. We need to be paid to be able to survive and feed our families.

The refinery staff are happy to return to work but the army won't allow it. They are worried that we might be suicide bombers or collecting information for the rebels.

The shortage of fuels in the city is adding to our hardship. The power is off and the generators are running out of gas, there is no drop of fuels anywhere in Baiji.

There are more than five trucks loaded with petrol inside the refinery, we thought the rebels would distribute them among people, but my friend, who is a truck driver at the refinery, said that the trucks have been hit by repeated air strikes.

Civilians in Baiji claim the air strikes flattened houses killing all civilian occupants.

9.30am BST

Maliki has confirmed that Syrian planes carried out those cross border air strikes, according to the BBC.

Iraq starts to form new governmet

Iraq has started the process of forming a new government by next week's deadline. Reuters reports:

Iraq's presidency issued a decree on Thursday for a parliament session on 1 July.

Vice President Khodair al-Khozaei, who is acting president and a close ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, announced the session would be held.

Three months after elections, a chorus of Iraqi and international voices have called for the government formation process to be started.

8.45am BST

The White House has warned Syria to stay out of Iraq, after giving credence to reports that Syrian war planes carried out the attacks on al-Qaim.

Spokesman Joshua Earnest said the administration has “no reason to dispute” the reports of Syrian airstrikes in Iraq, McClatchy reports.

It quotes Obaman's spokesman as saying: Earnest saying:

The solution to the threat confronting Iraq is not the intervention of the Assad regime. In fact, it’s the Assad regime and the terrible violence they perpetrated against their own people that allowed (Isis) to thrive in the first place.

McClatchy also notes that Syrian opposition activists claimed the al-Qaim strikes missed the extremists’ main bases and killed 30 civilians.

It quotes Abu al Walid, an opposition activist in insurgent controlled eastern Syrian town of Raqqa as Assad “is giving a hand to his ally, Maliki".

A Syrian media source refuted allegations made by malicious media outlets who claimed that the Syrian air force shelled area within the borders of Iraq, asserting that these reports are completely baseless.

Several news reports by media outlets who continue to cover up for terrorist groups in Syria had reported that the Syrian air force targeted sites in the town of al-Qai’m near the Iraq-Syrian borders.

7.50am BST

The details about cross border air raids by Syrian forces are sketchy.

Iraq's military initially said it carried out the strikes against militants in the town of al-Qaim on Tuesday.

Locals in the area and security officials in western Anbar province accused Syria of carrying out the air raid. But western security officials told Reuters it was still unclear which government was responsible.

Later US officials and a senior Iraqi military official confirmed to AP that Syrian war planes carried out the raid.